Encopresis | Imamother

unexpected

Wed, May 04 2011, 8:53 pm

Is that when a child holds in? If this is what you are talking baout, then I have no hope for you. My 8 yr old has been suffering with this for YEARS now and my 4 yr old is just starting. The only thing to do is wait it out. And breathe through your mouth...

amother

Thu, May 05 2011, 12:18 pm

chavamom wrote:

Have you tried the Fiber supplement/Mineral oil recommendation? It worked well for us and for my sister's son when he had hte problem (though I think they had to "upgrade" to Miralax).

What is that? Where would I find information for that recommendation?

unexpected

Thu, May 05 2011, 3:46 pm

Yes, my child was checked out. We have been through the entire gamut of 'help' for this problem even though I was warned at the outset that there is nothing to do. Eventually, we just gave up and when we did the problem immediately took a turn for the better. This was when he was already 8 yrs old! According to my understanding of the situation, it's a question of the which came first, the chicken or the egg. Is he unable to relax his body and therefore he cannot eliminate like a normal person, or is he unable to eliminate and therefore can't relax his body?
Right now, we are doing much better than we were, but when he is having a tough test in Yeshiva or there is chaos in the house due to a simcha or chas'veshalom the opposite, or even if I go away for a few days, the problem crops up again.
We were told by the first therapist we saw that it was a power struggle, and to let go as much as possible. Problem is, it is hard to ignore a problem when it adversely affects the whole family. For example, if we can't bentch at the table when he is there or if none of the kids will sit next to him in the car. However, as I said before, as soon as I stopped freaking out about it, and also started asking him to clean up his own mess (which he didn't always do satisfactorily) the problem eased a bit.
SO my advice is the same. You can't change your kid but you can love him anyway, hard as it may be when you can smell him a mile away. Eventually, if there is nothing wrong with him, he will outgrow it.

amother

Saddlebrown

Sun, Apr 17 2016, 5:43 pm

I am bumping this
If like the last poster says that ther is nothing wrong with him but the colon is stretched and they therefore have no sensation
In my understanding it does mean there is something wrong!
Ah the doctors Es can't really help
That is what it is

amother

Saddlebrown

Sun, Apr 17 2016, 5:47 pm

To unexpected
Is your son doing ok today? Btw if I don't mind telling me how old he is?
I do think this is immaturity
And a situation that has gone out of hand
I think certain personalities have been it more
The ones that are not as self aware
Too busy to care about this

ValleyMom

Sun, Apr 17 2016, 9:01 pm

I had a student with this medical condition last year in Pre 1st. (5 turning 6yrs.) The EC director felt that it was due to a tumultuous relationship with his mother- I had no opinion either way and so the year began.

Initially we had NO instances of leakage and/or odor for the first 5 months. Then, the reading program intensified and he was not reading. As the year progressed and the gap widened the leakage and odor intensified.

I read everything I could online about this medical condition.
I called my friend back east who is a child psychologist and she told me this is one of the most difficult medical conditions to help a child with.

I felt awful.

From what I understood his inability to release his BM leads them to rot in his body and as they stay inside the 'bowl movement rots and ultimately breaks down until there is a tiny bit of leakage." This leakage can be as small as a 1/4 - 1/2 a teaspoon but because it has been rotting in the body the odor is overpowering.

She took him to an internist who said he will eventually outgrow it.

Do any of you have older children where this is no longer an issue and it DID indeed resolve itself.

I am hoping someone will have wonderful, positive news for me to share with this child's mom.

amother

Scarlet

Mon, Apr 18 2016, 6:34 am

I have had a few kids with this issue. The first I went crazy. I thought she could control it, I couldn't handle the smell Etc at one point I thought it was psychological and I took her to a psychologist. After around 6 weeks there was some improvement, but not completely. What happened at the end was that I read up on the issue and understood that its physical and not the child's fault, I calmed down and with time it went away completely.

Then I had a son with the same issue. I was calmer though the smell was still difficult and with time he also outgrew it.

Now I have another child presently with this problem and I'm hopeful that he will also outgrow it. It's hard because the siblings complain about the smell but I try to explain to them that it's a physical problem and he's not doing it on purpose.

Hope that helps!

amother

Saddlebrown

Tue, May 03 2016, 8:40 am

I am bumping this as pp mentions gluten
Over Pesach ds had no accidents and in fact was doing much much better I am really beginning to think there might be a gluten intolerance here as he's not had any chometz which means gluten all the days of Pesach but as soon as he had regular rye bread he had an accident!